jasonjue.com | home | itinerary | photo albums | movies next >>  Rainforest hike and 300 foot repel to Actun Loch Tunich Skip to:  Day 1 - 04.22  Day 2 - 04.23    Dangriga    Dangriga to Isla Marisol    Kayaks to snorkeling    Evening at the bar  Day 3 - 04.24    Dive 1 at Glover's Reef    Dive 2 at Glover's Reef    Around Isla Marisol    Dive 3 at Glover's Reef    Evening on Isla Marisol  Day 4 - 04.25    Dive 4 at Glover's Reef    Dive 5 at Glover's Reef    Evening at Isla Marisol    Night dive  Day 5 - 04.26    Dive at Gladden's Split  Day 6 - 04.27    Leaving Isla Marisol    Caves Branch  Day 7 - 04.28    Hiking in jungle    300 ft repel    Hike to Actun Loch Tunich    Getting water in the cave  Day 8 - 04.29    Hiking around cave    Getting out of the jungle  Day 9 - 04.30    Gladden's Spit - Dive 1    Gladden's Spit - Dive 2  Day 10 - 05.01    The drive to San Ignacio    Caracol ruins    Leaving Caracol  Day 11 - 05.02    Roaming San Ignacio    Arriving in Los Angeles Day 7 The big activity for the day was to hike in the rainforest to a sinkhole, repel 300 feet down, hike to a cave, and spend the night inside it. We left at 9:30am with seven others including three guides. The four other hikers were very nice; they befriended us fairly quickly. Unfortunately, they weren't spending the night in the cave and would be brought back by one of the guides. Augustine and Arnold would eventually lead me, Gord, Amy, Cecil, and Jeremy in, through, and out of the cave. The hike was more tiring than I anticipated. I had to initially carry 11 liters of water and by the end of the hike had only around 3 liters. My legs were constantly sore and it was hard for me to breathe in the humid, hot, jungle. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed I was so tired. When we got to the edge of the cave's sinkhole, we setup our safety harnesses and rested. From there, we could see the cave but couldn't see the edge of the cliff we were to repel down. We each went down one at a time. I went last because I wanted to take everyone's picture. In order to go down, you walk off the side of the cliff backwards, holding the rope. It was scary not seeing where you were going. The scariest part though for me was when my feet ran out of cliff to cling onto. The transition from a secure position to suspending freely. It wasn't so bad once you trust the rope and suspend. 200 feet below lay the tree canopy, and another 100 feet below that was the ground. It was a beautiful site. Repelling down was easy and pretty fun. On the ground, the guides set up a table and we ate sandwiches for lunch. It was good. After lunch, we did a short hike into the cave. The rest of the group left except for two guides - Arnold and Augustine. We setup camp, hiked down some steep rocks to take a short refreshing swim. While down there, we filled up jugs with water and hauled those up the steep rocks. It wasn't easy trying to balance with one hand holding a jug of water. During the night we slept in cots all in a row. Jeremy snored so loud (watch him snore) in the middle of the night, Gordon got up and moved his cot to the other end of the row. I heard his snores echo throughout the cave. See the colors... Copyright © 2005, Jason Jue